Category: Mac OS X

It finally happened: We’re releasing a preview version of Paragon NTFS for Mac 15! Two years have passed since version 14, during which time we’ve gathered a lot of feedback from you. So, let us proudly present a fresh version of our well-known Mac software utility that eliminates boundaries with the Windows operating systems, enabling full read and write access to Windows-formatted drives on macOS.

New file system driver engine

The new edition comes with a robust new engine that guarantees advanced support of the latest NTFS file systems such as Windows 10 system compression and provides even faster, more transparent access to NTFS partitions under macOS.

Completely redesigned UI

We’ve designed the new UI based on your requests and feedback. Now all product functionality and options have been migrated from the previous System Preference Pane to a standalone macOS application:

A menubar application provides quick information on mounted volumes, as well as startup and verify options:

Here’s what it looks from the macOS Finder:

Based on your feedback, we’ve also added support for two color themes: Dark and Light.

New mount options

The first option, “Mount in read-only mode,” denies write access to the selected volume to keep sensitive data intact. The second, “Do not mount automatically,” prevents a volume from being mounted automatically on system startup or when the storage device is reconnected.

Support for Spotlight indexing

Spotlight is a search feature of Apple’s desktop and mobile operating systems designed to quickly locate specific data including documents, music, and pictures. Spotlight also delivers other benefits, including quick access to definitions from the built-in dictionary. This feature is helpful without compromising performance by working periodically in the background. A major re-indexing only occurs after a major OS update.

New OS Boot manager

The program detects all bootable volumes available on the system, allowing you to choose the one you’d like to boot from. After selecting a startup volume, you can choose whether to restart your Mac from it immediately or postpone the operation until next time.

Thanks to your feedback, we have managed to create a great utility you’re sure to love. Please give it a try, and feel free to provide us with any thoughts or ideas about this new release. It’s free to use until September 1st, 2017, so click here to download the latest version, or check your MyParagon account if you already own a previous version.

Christmas is just around the corner, and every year, the author of this article asks himself the question: “am I getting a new Mac?”

OK, to be honest, the author never got a Mac or PC as a present, be it for Christmas or any other occasion. Beyond that, he wouldn’t necessarily choose a machine like that at all if he still had three wishes left.

But first of all, since no fairy ever came along with three wishes to give (at least not yet), and secondly, that it’s been a few years since the author last believed in Santa Claus and thirdly, that he doesn’t know anybody else who could make such wishes come true, this question is largely irrelevant.

Be that as it may: The hard disk has been making some really strange sounds for a while and the excessively loud fan noise has been getting on the author’s tender nerves for a long time by now. The laptop already has nearly five years under its belt – maybe it really is the right time to start looking for a new one?

An iPad, perhaps, or maybe even one of these hip new Macbook Pros with a touch bar? Or one of the new Microsoft Surface Books or maybe even a Surface Studio all-in-one PC would be a real eye-catcher.

The agony of choice, so the saying goes. In this case, it’s also hard to balance out the pros and the cons. In spite of its somewhat higher price, the author tends a bit towards Microsoft’s classy laptop, not least because of its integrated tablet function.

One way or another, something has to be done about clattering hard disk – and quickly. An extra backup can never hurt, and if you pick the right one, you might even be able to restore your hard-earned work environment on the new hardware. If the author chooses a new laptop, then he could use his entire system on the new machine without having to change it – including all of the applications. And since the author earns his daily bread at a software company – one that specializes in data migration, backup and restoration – he naturally took precautions, and with the Paragon Hard Disk Manager, he had the right tool at hand.

If the author decides to get a new Surface or Macbook later on, he won’t have any trouble getting started. With the Hard Disk Manager for Windows or Mac, he can optimize for one operating system or the other, move his existing systems to new hardware, back up his Mac OS as well as his Windows PC, and much more. Observant readers may have already noted that the author feels at home on the Mac as well as with Windows – if not, then it’s clear now.

Switching between the two systems has become second nature to him; so much so that he doesn’t always remember which machine he created which file on. But thanks to Paragon NTFS for Mac drivers, this doesn’t matter much anymore. He can access his files from either world with the greatest of ease.

If this gets anybody to thinking: “It’s so easy to juggle between Mac and Windows? I wish I could do that!” then the Paragon Christmas bundle would be the thing to get. The double-pack offers big savings and, if any new hardware does show up under the tree, then Paragon’s time-tested solutions will be a genuine must-have.

UPDATE: Since the author, in spite of all his efforts, has started to accept that he won’t be getting a pay raise, he ended up deciding against both a Surface a MacBook and opted for a more affordable yet comparably high-performance model from another manufacturer.

UPDATE: The hard disk ended up conking out after all, but thanks to the backup and the right Paragon tools, the author made it through unscathed.

PS: The author also works with a famous Linux distributor, but that’s another story.

We are proud to release Paragon UFSD (Universal File System Driver) Value Pack – a bundle of five essential cross-platform tools: NTFS for Mac, ExtFS for Mac, HFS+ for Windows, ExtFS for Windows, and NTFS-HFS Converter, powered with Lifetime UPGRADE ASSURANCE for each product in the bundle.

The UFSD Value Pack has been developed for users working with multiple operating systems to instantly solve compatibility issues. The UFSD Value Pack comes with a lifetimefree upgrade guarantee, and is available for just $49.95 — a savings of nearly $100 compared to purchasing the included tools separately. For existing Paragon NTFS for Mac 14 customers, the UFSD Value Pack is available for just $19.95 in their personal MyParagon accounts. For all users with NTFS for Mac 12 version and lower the final bundle price is $24.95. Check out your offer now >>

Paragon ExtFS for Mac® 10: Full read and write access to Ext2/3/4 partitions under macOS with data transfer rate similar to native file system performance. The same driver also checks, repairs, creates, and formats Ext2/3/4 volumes.

Paragon HFS+ for Windows® 11: The only solution with full access to HFS+ partitions on disks of any type (GPT, MBR), with higher transfer rates than native HFS file-system performance.

Paragon ExtFS for Windows®: Fast and transparent access to Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 partitions under Windows; read and write support for LVM (Logical Volume Management).

Since the release of Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, Paragon Software Сustomer Service have received over a 1000 requests concerning the verify/repair/format disk utility options, which disappeared from the Disk Utility in OS X 10.11 El Capitan. To address this issue, we integrated the functionality directly to NTFS for Mac Preference Pane.

Additionally we have recently released a new professional maintenance tool, Paragon Hard Disk Manager for Mac, to help you perform these basic and numerous advanced file system and volume partitioning operations.

If you are in need of such a solution, you can try Paragon HDM for Mac now.

However, in this article we going to show you how to format, verify and repair NTFS volumes with built-in partitioning tools in NTFS for Mac 14 under Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

Disk Utility vs. Third-Party Drivers

The El Capitan version of Disk Utility has been through major changes — both cosmetically and under the hood. Once you get used to the glossy new user interface, veteran users might notice Disk Utility no longer manages disks mounted by third-party drivers, at least not through the program’s graphical user interface. The reasons for the change don’t make a whole lot of sense to outsiders, especially when disks mounted by non-native drivers can still be mounted, formatted, or repaired by using the command-line diskutil.

In addition to the under the hood changes outlined above, the familiar NTFS for Mac preferences pane has been overhauled with version 14. Since Disk Utility can no longer be used to work with Windows-formatted volumes, NTFS for Mac 14 now includes built-in format, verify, and mount functionality.

In addition to Windows NTFS, other file systems supported by OS X can also be used with this preference pane — for example, if Paragon’s ExtFS for Mac driver is already installed on the same system, NTFS for Mac will also be able to format, verify, or mount Linux-native Ext2/3/4 disks as well.

Here’s what NTFS for Mac 14 looks like when launched:

In order to verify or format your NTFS or ExtFS volumes with Paragon drivers, you need to launch the app Preference Pane, select a volume and click “Verify” or “Erase”, depending on what operation you need.

NTFS for Mac 14 also fixes found file system errors during the volume verification process:

For those comfortable with Terminal, the same actions can also be performed with Paragon’s command-line utilities. Advanced users familiar with Unix will have access to additional options through this interface:

fsck_ufsd_NTFS finds and repairs errors on NTFS disks.

newfs_ufsd_NTFS formats a volume to NTFS.

mount_ufsd_NTFS mounts or unmounts NTFS disks.

Support of the Windows NT file system is automatically added to the command-line diskutil during installation of the NTFS for Mac driver.

In case you quite often need not only to verify and format NTFS volumes, but perform more advanced tasks, such as move, resize, copy or even undelete partitions formatted to HFS+, NTFS, ExtFS, FAT and exFAT, try the new Paragon Hard Disk Manager for Mac.

HDM for Mac is not just for backup — it’s a powerful application that covers all aspects of the computer’s life cycle, including drive partitioning, file system optimization and repair functions, data backup capabilities, and irreversible data wiping. It already works with macOS Sierra 10.12 Preview.

We frequently talk about recent security threats, including the new Trojan horse called “Locky” that encrypts your information forever, making it impossible to read.
Unfortunately, Locky is not the only virus that can cause problems for your operating system. There are many other types of viruses which can silently infiltrate a computer without you even noticing it. One of the most common and easiest ways of accessing your system is through an external flash or a hard drive.

There are a number of software solutions to help prevent such infection, as well as a radical and 100 percent secure hardware method. You can protect your USB ports from an unauthorized access for a short period of time simply by disabling the ports.

Save the file in the desired location and name it usboff.reg. Be sure to save it with the .reg extension and not .txt, or this trick will not work.

Now repeat the process, changing only two parts: in the line ”Start”=dword:00000004 change the 4 to a 3 , and then save a new file named usbon.reg.

Done!

Now when you want to disable the USB port, simply open the usboff.reg file and confirm the change. This will block any external drive plugged into your PC from working. As you might have guessed, opening and confirming the usbon.reg file will do just the opposite, once again enabling the USB port.
Assuming you are the only one with administrator-level access to the computer in question, no one will be able to change these files except you.

Now for the Mac

This trick is slightly more complicated than on Windows.
OS X 10.11 El Capitan brought with it an additional level of security for your Mac: System Integrity Protection (SIP), which prevents system-related files from modification. Even if you have an administrator-level account, you won’t be able to make changes to these files.

Apple’s new protection policy may have good intentions, but it clearly doesn’t help with our mission to disable USB.

NB! If you are using a USB keyboard or mouse, please don’t attempt this trick! You won’t be able to use these input devices, requiring an alternate method such as Bluetooth.

You can disable SIP by booting into recovery mode. Restart your Mac and hold Command+R as it boots.

To reenable SIP, launch Terminal while in Recovery mode, but this time type csrutil enable, then press Enter and restart.

But there’s an easier way – download and install the new Paragon Hard Disk Manager for Mac®, which provides, on top of other useful functions, one-click SIP disable feature.

When your SIP is disabled, do the following: open Finder and select Go -> Go to Folder from the menu. Copy and paste the /System/Library/Extensions path into the field and look for two files located there:

IOUSBMassStorageClass.kext
IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport.KEXT

Move these files to the Desktop or other location, but be sure to keep them somewhere safe — you’ll need them to enable your USB ports again!

These small tricks can help you protect your information from being stolen or damaged. If you are interested in more advanced and useful features to protect your Mac, try our new Paragon Hard Disk Manager for Mac, a powerful disk management utility for OS X, featuring:

At CeBIT 2016 in Hanover Germany, after review of several thousands submissions, the Initiative Mittelstand awarded the utility application Paragon NTFS for Mac 14 with the Best of IT Innovation 2016 in the category “Data Management.” Impressed by the product’s capabilities, the judges bestowed this special recognition to the popular OS X utility.

Paragon NTFS for Mac 14 allows anyone to easily access and format Windows NTFS-formatted partitions, even those used to dual-boot Windows on a Mac, simplifying management of Windows-based volumes in OS X 10.11 El Capitan. Paragon NTFS for Mac allows users to check and repair the file system integrity of NTFS partitions via the app’s graphical interface, using its volume management functions, instead of using complicated command line tools, as is required by other utilities of this type.

“While Mac OS X allows users to easily read from Windows NTFS formatted partitions, it doesn’t allow them to write files to such a drive without entering arcane commands into Terminal, or allow them to fix any problems that a volume’s file system might incur,” says Ivan Sidorin, Product manager at Paragon Software Group. “Paragon NTFS for Mac allows users to read, write, run diagnostics, and fix any issues with NTFS volumes directly from its graphical volume management interface, simplifying the use of NTFS formatted volumes on the Mac.”

Users can conveniently use Paragon NTFS for Mac to easily navigate the contents of any NTFS drive, allowing them to read, edit, copy, or create files and folders on the drive. The app provides fast and transparent access to any NTFS partition while running OS X 10.11.

OS X El capitan may be more resistant than ever to malicious software, but its arrival means new challenges lie ahead for some third-party developers.

SIP: Forcing developers to think different

OS X El Capitan 10.11 offers serious defense against malware on a number of fronts, most notably System Integrity Protection (SIP for short). SIP removes administrative overrides for processes running in the background and disables root access to /usr, /bin, /sbin, and /System, preventing ANY user or application (with the exception of Mac-native installer software) from writing to those locations or modifying files residing there.
In doing so, Apple has for the first time rejected a key Unix principal by limiting the access privileges of a “superuser” (better known as root). Traditionally, users with administrator privileges could install software and generally access any part of the root-level system they so desire, while regular users had more limited access.
Although this approach has generally worked well since OS X debuted in 2001, there was always the potential threat of local or remote attacks from rogue Trojan horse software that gained access to root. By implementing SIP, veteran Mac power users now consider the operating system to be “rootless.”
It should be noted that Apple has provided power users with a workaround to temporarily disable SIP, simply by booting into the Recovery partition and selecting Utilities > Security Configuration from the menu. Next, uncheck Enforce System Integrity Protection, click Apply Configuration, and restart for the change to take effect. However, it’s clear that SIP is the way forward, so developers and end users will need to adapt accordingly.

Disk Utility vs. Third-Party Drivers

The El Capitan version of Disk Utility has also been through major changes — both cosmetically and under the hood. Once you get used to the glossy new user interface, veteran users might notice Apple has entirely removed the option to repair disk permissions. That’s because Apple no longer allows permissions to change in any way, with the exception of an automatic repair run during software updates.

But that’s not all: Disk Utility no longer manages disks mounted by third-party drivers, at least not through the program’s graphical user interface. The reasons for the change don’t make a whole lot of sense to outsiders, especially when disks mounted by non-native drivers can still be mounted, formatted, or repaired by using the command-line diskutil.

Making OS X more like mobile

An additional security improvement removes the possibility of using unsigned kernel extensions (kexts) which modify the core of OS X. Starting with El Capitan, developers must sign kexts with a valid Apple certificate in order for them to continue working. This means perfectly good drivers for discontinued products or expensive hardware could suddenly become unusable after upgrading to the new OS — with no easy or reliable downgrade available!

By adopting such changes, Apple aims to make OS X a more user-friendly and secure platform similar to iOS, which powers the company’s popular iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch products. Although this move will surely benefit average users and protect them from the ever-increasing threat of malicious software, the additional layers of security temporarily complicate matters for advanced power users and Mac developers whose livelihood depends upon OS X.

The challenge for developers

If you already purchase most of your software from the Mac App Store, chances are you’ll never notice (or care) about the under-the-hood changes Apple has implemented with OS X El Capitan. But there are plenty of third-party developers who will be affected, especially those who offer software outside of Apple’s walled garden ecosystem.

The makers of popular utility software like Default Folder X have already discovered solutions to work around El Capitan’s new challenges, which required a complete overhaul of the existing application in order to implement. Paragon Software faced a similar challenge with NTFS for Mac, which adds the ability to write to Windows-formatted volumes, which can’t natively be done with OS X alone.

Like many other developers, Paragon products have traditionally stored application components in the very places El Capitan no longer permits. For example, the NTFS for Mac driver would be installed in /System/Library/Filesystems, while auxiliary command-line utilities were located in /usr/sbin.

Because of SIP, NTFS for Mac 14 and higher now place this driver in /Library/Filesystems, relocating associated utilities to /usr/local/sbin/, where root still has full privileges. It’s not only a reasonable alternative, but also remains proper Unix etiquette. Likewise, the NTFS for Mac 14 driver is properly signed as a kernel extension, making it a required update for owners of earlier versions prior to upgrading to El Capitan.

Meet the new NTFS for Mac 14

In addition to the under the hood changes outlined above, the familiar NTFS for Mac preferences pane has been overhauled with version 14. Since Disk Utility can no longer be used to work with Windows-formatted volumes, NTFS for Mac 14 now includes built-in format, verify, and mount functionality.

In addition to Windows NTFS, other file systems supported by OS X can also be used with this preference pane — for example, if Paragon’s ExtFS for Mac driver is already installed on the same system, NTFS for Mac will also be able to format, verify, or mount Linux-native Ext2/3/4 disks as well.

Here’s what NTFS for Mac 14 looks like when launched:

And here’s a look at the new way to format volumes as NTFS:

NTFS for Mac 14 can also be used to verify a volume for possible file system errors:

For those comfortable with Terminal, the same actions can also be performed with Paragon’s command-line utilities. Advanced users familiar with Unix will have access to additional options through this interface:

fsck_ufsd_NTFS finds and repairs errors on NTFS disks.

fsck_ufsd_NTFS formats a volume to NTFS.

mount_ufsd_NTFS mounts or unmounts NTFS disks.

Finally, support of the Windows NT file system is automatically added to the command-line diskutil during installation of the NTFS for Mac driver.

The updated version comes with a redesigned user interface, and allows owners of the free edition to also work with Boot Camp.

New and improved features:

2GB can now be reallocated between OS X and Windows absolutely free, particularly convenient for urgent, last-minute changes to available disk space.

The new interface design is more intuitive and user-friendly.

Ivan Sidorin, product manager: “We have improved the overall impression of working with the Camptune X application, which has been redesigned to be more convenient from the user’s perspective. We pay close attention to how the user interacts with the software. The new version also improves overall reliability. Finally, we’ve made it more convenient for users of the free edition — for example, if you’re running out of disk space on the Windows partition and urgently need to preserve system updates or other files under 2GB in size. With Paragon Camptune X 10.10, you can now do it in just one click without having to purchase the full version.”

Paragon NTFS for Mac is the world’s fastest application, achieving speeds of native drivers, with OS X El Capitan support. Our internal tests have proven: Paragon NTFS file system driver is the fastest one on the market! The native HFS+ driver has approximately the same read performance as Paragon NTFS for Mac.

OS X El Capitan 10.11 offers serious defense against malware on a number of fronts, most notably System Integrity Protection (SIP for short). SIP removes administrative overrides for processes running in the background and disables root access to /usr, /bin, /sbin, and /System, preventing ANY user or application (with the exception of Mac-native installer software) from writing to those locations or modifying files residing there.

In doing so, Apple has for the first time rejected a key Unix principal by limiting the access privileges of a “superuser” (better known as root). Traditionally, users with administrator privileges could install software and generally access any part of the root-level system they so desire, while regular users had more limited access.

Because of SIP, NTFS for Mac 14 and higher now place this driver in /Library/Filesystems, relocating associated utilities to /usr/local/sbin/, where root still has full privileges. It’s not only a reasonable alternative, but also remains proper Unix etiquette. Likewise, the NTFS for Mac 14 driver properly signed as a kernel extension, making it a required update for owners of earlier versions prior to upgrading to El Capitan. If you have already purchased NTFS for Mac 12 or earlier versions, please, check your personal upgrade offer here.

As Disk Utility can no longer be used with Windows-formatted volumes, ‘NTFS for Mac 14’ offers built-in “mount” functionality. Launch the updated preferences pane of Paragon NTFS for Mac 14 and use the NTFS volume mount functionality as before with the OS X proprietary disk utility. For advanced users support of the Windows NT file system automatically added to the command-line diskutil during installation of the NTFS for Mac driver. So you can use the the “mount_ufsd_NTFS” command to perform mounting or unmounting of NTFS partitions.

Now it is possible to format Windows NTFS files to Mac & from Mac to Windows. Format NTFS utility formats any partition as NTFS under Mac OS X 10.8 and higher. Access this feature from NTFS for Mac 14 preference pane or command line with the “fsck_ufsd_NTFS” command.

Another feature of OS X disk utility, that disappeared in EL Capitan, is to check NTFS volumes integrity and fix errors. It is also available on Paragon NTFS for Mac preference pane or via the “fsck_ufsd_NTFS” command in the terminal.

10-days to try for free

You can take advantage of full commercial product features to make sure that Paragon NTFS for Mac 14 provides the best experience and highest data transfer speed for you.

100% free online support

In case of any problems, our team of top-qualified and friendly support engineers will help you out. Ask your question on MyParagon portal or visit our Knowledge Base for a quick reference. Documentation is also always available online.

The best upgrade options guarantee

We highly appreciate our customers and try to provide you with the best experience possible. To keep you satisfied and up-to-date, we introduced a special update policy for all Paragon NTFS for Mac product version. Particularly, users, who bought a full commercial Paragon NTFS for Mac 12 are eligible to get Paragon NTFS for Mac 14 free of charge. You can check It here. Those, who received versions 12 as a free upgrade from NTFS for Mac 11 can get a special 50% off upgrade offer in their personal MyParagon accounts. Users of earlier versions of Paragon NTFS for Mac can get the latest version with 30% discount.

Paragon NTFS for Mac eliminates boundaries between Mac and Windows operating systems, delivering full read and write support for NTFS-formatted drives on OS X. Paragon NTFS for Mac achieves the speed of native drivers and is the industry’s fastest solution for Mac users who want to share data between Mac and Windows systems, so that the user doesn’t even notice on which platform their files are.

Paragon NTFS for Mac Yosemite Free is based on Paragon’s proprietary Universal File System Driver (UFSD) technology. Paragon UFSD provides full access (read/write, format, etc.) to volumes of the most popular file systems under all popular platforms (Mac, Windows, Linux, Android and DOS).

Availability:
Paragon NTFS for Mac Yosemite Free is available for download absolutely free of charge! For Mac users of El Capitan, the commercial 14th version is available at $19.99.
For other Mac products, please visit Mac ToolBox Portal.